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Hernando Today

Past sexual behavior can affect future health

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By VIRGINIA DIAZ Hernando Today correspondent

The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 1, 2009

Trichomonas vagilitis is an insidious germ. It's a type of parasite that's sexually transmitted and though women may experience symptoms - men do not.

Unless a sexual partner mentions experiencing symptoms, most of the time a man would not know he had it. And since this particular infection usually goes away by itself in time, the man is none the wiser until years later when he's diagnosed with aggressive and potentially life threatening prostate cancer.

The warning about the possible connection between the STD trichomonas and prostate cancer comes from a study done at the Harvard School of Public Health. The researchers found that one in five men enrolled in the study had the trichomonas germ at some point in their lives. And though being infected didn't raise the risk of prostate cancer in general, those who had it were 2 to 3 times more likely to get an aggressive form of the disease,

Trichomonas affects 174 million people every year. It's most common in men ages 25 to 39. According to the study only 1 in 4 men will develop symptoms and the infection will go away by itself eventually although antibiotics speed it on its way.

"I think the only time men really seek medical attention is if their partner has been diagnosed," say the study's senior author, Dr. Loreli Mucci, Ph.D. "The general feeling is it doesn't seem to be doing any real harm but in this case it may actually be doing harm - you're just not seeing the harm until 20 years in the future."

In broader terms, Mucci and her colleague believe that inflammation itself is the culprit. Trichomonas is only one silent source that could spark prostate cancer, contribute to it or make it grow faster. Diet may play a role, as could oxidative stress from smoking.

But while this new evidence is noteworthy, it's by no means definitive.

"When researchers find an association from a retrospective study like this one, additional questions must be answered," says Dr. Kelli Maw, medical executive director for the Hernando County Dept. of Health. "For instance, do the same findings come up repeatedly in different studies? If groups of people who have had trichomonas infection are followed over time, will they develop prostate cancer? Does the chance of developing prostate cancer increase with the number of infections they have had? Until answers to questions like these are available, it may still be too early to draw conclusions."

Other researchers involved in the work agree. Dr. Peter Albertsen of the University of Connecticut Health Center says, "What needs to happen is a few more researchers need to tackle this issue to either nail this down as a true relationship or dispense with it."

In the meantime, Maw's advice is to take no chances.

"Trichomonas is not only treatable, but preventable by using barrier methods of contraception such as condoms. We also know that men may not show symptoms of trichomonas. This is why it is so important to treat the person with the disease as well as their partners very promptly to interrupt the chain of transmission.

The Hernando County Health Department offers services to detect and treat sexually transmitted disease to people with symptoms as well as their partners."

For more information about STDs and their treatment, visit the Hernando County Health Department Nature Coast Community Health Center Web site at www.hernandohealth.com.

Virginia Diaz writes regularly for the Hernando Today Health Today section. She lives in Brooksville and can be contacted at diazvirginia@bellsouth.net.

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